Two Years After The Fall Of Midgar: The Full Story
by BlackNinjagirl
Summary: This is basically my other fanfic, "Two Years After The Fall Of Midgar", only on a oneshot. R&R!


Ninjagirl: This is for all of those who don't like to change chapters--May I present "Two Years After The Fall Of Midgar, The Full Story"!

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**Two Years After The Fall Of Midgar, The Full Story  
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Christina Wyrd was riding out on the highway on her motorcycle, loving the way the wind ruffled her long red hair and which sent her bangs flying everywhere and her long braid trailing out behind her.

She checked to see if her sword was still in the compartment on her right, which, of course, it was. The sword had been given to her by Cloud Strife, her fiancée of a little over a year now, a little while after she had met him in SOLDIER thanks to Zack Fair, who had introduced them a little while after Cloud had joined SOLDIER and who was also her best friend, and the three of them had been inseparable up until she had escaped from Shinra, Inc., and she never went anywhere without it. She never heard from Zack since then, and Cloud had told her that Zack had died trying to protect him once they had met back up thanks to Tifa Lockheart, Cloud's old childhood friend, and AVALANCHE.

The sword wasn't the only weapon in her unusual arsenal; the right compartment also held one of Yuffie Kisaragi's old shuriken and one of Vincent Valentine's old rifles, as well as one of his old pistols and a few other odds and ends. The left contained one of Aeris Gainsborough's old Materia rods complete with the Materia and more of Vincent's old guns.

She usually didn't carry around all these weapons, but the current times called for it and she had been ambushed way too many times to count since Midgar had nearly been destroyed two years ago, especially when she was on the highway heading over to visit Cloud. There was also the added gem that Shinra was slowly becoming part of all of the crime going around, and that wasn't helping either.

_Damn, not now,_ she thought as she felt the muscles in her left leg seize up painfully and visions of her days in SOLDIER flashed before her eyes, and the combined effects of the Geostigma making her wince violently, nearly sending her bike off of the road.

After a few minutes or so, the tension and visions subsided for the most part, and she quickly righted herself, but not before she had caught a flash of motion through the right side of her goggles, which she wore to keep the dirt out of her eyes whenever she went biking.

Naturally, she looked in that direction to see a familiar flash of black on a bike similar to hers swerving back and forth on the dirt to evade and counter attacks from two silver-haired guys, also on bikes, trying (and doing a pretty good job of it) to attack him.

Recognizing him to be her fiancée, and wanting a bit of fun, she opened the compartments, pulled out her sword, and closed them back in one fluid motion, then, quickly making sure that she was the only one on that part of the highway, spun her bike around with a loud screech of tires and headed over to help him out, twirling her sword as she went.

When she had caught up to the fight, she slashed at the guys attacking Cloud.

"Hey, you assholes," she taunted, "if you wanted a fight, you should have evened up the score some."

"Christina!" she heard Cloud exclaim, sounding relieved.

She grinned. "Naturally! Who'd you expect, the Boogeyman?"

She could hear his laugh as she evaded an attack from one of the guys as well as the shadowlike wolf creatures chasing them.

"Well, if it isn't our sister," one of the guys, whom she saw had long silver hair, said to her, making her scowl.

"I am no relative of yours!" she retorted before slashing at him, which he evaded.

She saw the other one, who had short silver hair, try to slash at Cloud and blocked it, counter-slashing and making the guy glare at her.

She smirked slightly before yelling at him, "You go after him, you deal with _me_ first."

"Ah, but Sister, he_needs_ to be punished!" the first guy put in.

"I told you, I'm no relative of yours!" she yelled back, slashing at the both of them then speeding up to catch up with Cloud.

"Are they bothering you?" she asked him sweetly, and heard him laugh lightly.

"Not really," he replied as the two of them evaded gunshots from the guys behind them.

She shrugged. "Ah well…they need their asses kicked anyways." She grinned. "And since you're the delivery boy now, I think I should be your bodyguard."

"Ha," she heard him snort arrogantly. "You know as well as I do that I'm not your average delivery boy."

"I haven't had this much fun in _ages_, Cloud!"

Cloud sighed. "All right, Christina, go have your fun."

She grinned and lightly applied her brakes, making her slow down so that she was lagging slightly behind the two bikes, then released them and slashed at the two guys, who evaded and attempted to retaliate when Christina did a wheelie, evading the attacks and showing off at the same time as well as making the attacks hit the other enemy.

She saw Cloud shake his head and couldn't restrain a grin as she let her front wheel set back down and sped up again to try to catch up to Cloud but one of the creatures leapt at her, forcing her to evade.

She was caught off-guard by another one, which hit her and knocked off her biking goggles, but quickly recovered and slashed at it, making it vanish and reappear behind her. She then attempted to speed up again, just succeeding to catch up with Cloud when her leg seized up again and the visions flashed in front of her eyes.

"You too, huh?" she heard Cloud ask her as she shook her head a few times, trying to get rid of the vision problem she had at the moment thanks to the Geostigma, which was a condition that resulted from certain cells that had been injected into her leg as a result of being forced to join SOLDIER. The memories she had from those days in SOLDIER were not very pleasant, excepting the times when she had hung out with either Cloud, Zack, or both.

"I had to take them too, you know," she mumbled as the vision problem and the tension—again, for the most part—receded. "Not that I _wanted_ to, or anything."

"I know," he replied softly so that the silver-haired guys couldn't hear. "Where is it?"

"Left leg. It hurts like hell."

"You're not kidding," he managed to mutter back before the two of them evaded another shadow-wolf and Cloud slashed it, making it vanish and reappear behind them.

Christina was about to suggest that they lose the assholes following them when the shadow-wolf creatures vanished entirely and the two guys following them turned around and headed back on their own.

"Well!" she blurted. "Nothing but coincidence."

"What? What is it?" Cloud asked her curiously.

"I was about to suggest that we lose those jackasses when they turned and left on their own."

"That _is_ a coincidence." He looked at her. "Where were you going before you joined the fight?"

"Originally, I was going to see if you were at the usual spot—the church, of course—but then I saw you getting chased and decided that those guys needed an ass-thrashing and—well, you know the rest."

"Or at least I can guess it from there," Cloud agreed, smiling.

Christina grinned back and did another wheelie, which made Cloud roll his eyes. "You're such a showoff."

"Actually, it helps in battle, especially if the enemy is trying to hit you and you're between them. They only end up hitting each other and it's rather funny to watch," she retorted, letting her front wheel drop back down again.

Cloud smiled again and moved his bike over to hers so that they were touching, then leaned over and kissed her. "I'm so glad you're mine."

Christina grinned. "You're not the only one, hon," she said before kissing him deeper than he had kissed her, then, after breaking from the kiss, moved her bike so that it wasn't stuck to his and sped up slightly. "Race you to the church!"

"Not quite yet," Cloud interjected. "Let me check my voicemail first."

She rolled her eyes but let him anyway, and when he was done, she revved her engine, speeding up ahead of him.

"We need to stop by Shinra, Inc.'s Headquarters. Tifa's told me that Reno's called twice so I think it's urgent."

Christina scowled when she heard the name Shinra but nodded. "All right, just to see what's the matter." She looked at him. "Then we head to the church. Capish? I don't want to be in there longer than we have to. You know how I am about that place."

Cloud smiled knowingly and nodded. "All right, no longer than necessary at the Headquarters."

She sighed. "Good. That place has bad memories."

The two of them rode the rest of the way hearing nothing but the sound of the bike motors.

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They got to the Shinra, Inc. Headquarters, parked their bikes in front of the stairs—Christina holding her sword, Cloud with his on his back in the harness—and headed inside.

She scowled when she saw Reno waiting for them. "Figures."

Cloud, however, rolled his eyes and let Reno swing at him, stepping to the side at the last minute and sending him outside, then shut the door on him and locked it, which made Christina smirk.

"I was about to suggest that, actually," she told her fiancée and best friend since SOLDIER. "You beat me to the punch."

She turned to see Reno's friend Rude grinning at them and flicked her sword up so that the tip was at his throat before he had a chance to even do so much as raise an eyebrow.

"I think not," she said coolly. "You probably remember what happened last time you tried something like that, hmm?"

"Very good," a voice from nearby and which Christina had heard too many times to count said suddenly. "Exactly what I'd expect from a couple of ex-SOLDIERs."

Christina's eyes narrowed as a wheelchair was rolled into the room containing a figure covered in a white sheet.

"Rufus Shinra," she heard Cloud say and, out of the corner of her eye, saw him nod in acknowledgement, but every muscle in her body tensed and her gaze turned icy cold in seconds. She wasn't about to forget what that man's father did to her, nor will she ever forget. That man was beyond sick, and Cloud was the only one who knew the full extent of what had been done to her—he had only given the others the brief outline after they had defeated Sephiroth, not even mentioning anything about the "incident" with the former President Shinra, the one that had infuriated her to the extent that had made her escape from SOLDIER the very next day.

That had been four years ago, and she was still furious with Rufus' father for doing it, even after Sephiroth had killed him two years ago.

She could tell that Cloud had noticed her reaction, for she felt his comforting hand on her shoulder and started to relax—with the exception of her Geostigma-affected leg, which stayed slightly tensed no matter what she did—but kept her guard up in case anyone decided to attack.

"What do you want, anyway?" she asked with enough cold in her voice to let Rufus know that she meant business and that she would leave as soon as she could if it wasn't for Cloud's interest.

"I know how you are about this place, Christina --" Rufus started to say before the female warrior cut him off.

"You don't know how I feel," she said icily. "You have _no idea_ how I feel about this place. This very building is where your father put his sick ideas into action—_on me_."

"I'm not my father," Rufus retorted simply.

"I know that, and believe me about being sincere when I say thank God for that. Just make sure you don't go down the same sick path he did."

She then glanced at Cloud before putting her sword back in the harness on her back, and Cloud apparently took that as a signal for him to speak for he then asked Rufus, "Who were those three men?"

Christina gave him a peculiar look. "Three? Only two were chasing us."

"There was another one on the cliff where the sword is," Cloud replied to her question, still looking at Rufus. "So?" he asked Rufus, slipping his hand off of Christina's shoulder once the said female warrior was relaxed. "Who were they? Two of them attacked me—well, us, since they attacked Christina as well once they saw her."

Christina, knowing what sword he meant—Zack's old sword which he had stuck into the ground on the edge of a small cliff just outside of Midgar as a memorial to their old friend—smiled slightly.

"Jackasses," she muttered under her breath when Cloud mentioned the three guys that they had fought not long ago, absentmindedly toying with the ring Cloud had given her as her engagement ring and which she always wore around her neck on a chain, since she didn't like wearing rings when she was using her sword—or any kind of weapon, for that matter.

"That's not helping," Cloud told her reproachfully.

Christina shrugged. "They're still jackasses. It makes me feel better calling them that anyways."

Cloud sighed and turned back to Rufus, who was looking curiously at what Christina was twirling in her fingers around her neck.

"Is that what I think it is?" the young President of Shinra, Inc. asked her.

"It's a necklace, if that's what you mean," she replied evasively. She wasn't too keen on Rufus knowing about her engagement to Cloud. As a matter of fact, she wasn't too keen on him knowing anything but what he needed to about her personal life. Her personal life was hers and she didn't want a hundred other people burdened with what she had gone through when she was in SOLDIER other than Cloud and Zack, who had been her support through almost everything in SOLDIER when she had needed it.

"No," she heard Rufus correct, "I mean _on_ the necklace."

"Nothing that concerns you," she said icily, slipping her necklace back underneath her shirt so that Rufus did not see what was on it. "Besides, you owe us explanations."

Rufus sighed and quickly explained about what they had found, then said, "We need people like you two—the muscle."

The engaged couple exchanged looks, then Cloud asked, "What exactly do you need muscle for?"

"To get rid of the three that had attacked you—Kedaj and his brothers, Yazoo and Loz."

Christina frowned. "Kedaj…" It sounded vaguely familiar, though she couldn't place how exactly. "Where have I heard that name before?" She shrugged. "Oh well, I'll remember later."

She stared at Rufus. "Which one is which?"

Rufus smirked—at least, that's what Christina could tell from what she could see of the young President's face from under the sheet. "As far as I know, the one that has the shoulder-length silver hair is Kedaj, the one with the long silver hair is Yazoo, and the one with the short silver hair is Loz."

"And _why_ exactly should we help you?" Cloud cut in curtly.

"Because you're our buddies," came Reno's voice from outside, and an irritated Christina kicked the door, making him shut up instantly.

"Because you both were once part of SOLDIER," Rufus replied smoothly, ignoring Reno's remark.

Christina shook her head. "I'm never going back in, never."

"Neither of us are," Cloud agreed.

"I'm not making you go back in SOLDIER," Rufus said quickly. "I want to try to make things the way they were before—with some exceptions, of course."

Christina scowled and crossed her arms. "Maybe we should leave."

Cloud, however, grabbed her arm. "We're not leaving yet."

Her eyes met his and she saw that he was slightly interested, then she nodded and he let go, though she could tell it was reluctant.

She looked back at Rufus. "Exceptions like what?"

"Shinra, Inc. would be greater than any company ever created."

"_Now_ we leave," Cloud muttered, turning around and unlocking the door and had just opened it a few inches when he heard Christina speak, and stopped to hear what she said.

"Why did the two guys chasing us keep mentioning a 'Mother'?" she asked Rufus.

Rufus chuckled. "Because of the war, a lot of children have lost their parents, Christina. I've heard that your friend over there (AN: He means Cloud, if you didn't get that) has taken in some orphans with Geostigma. We could heal them all."

"We could rebuild Shinra," Reno exclaimed from outside.

That, in Christina's opinion, was a very bad thing to say, for after that out stormed a very angry Cloud.

"Not interested!" he yelled over his shoulder. "C'mon, Christina!"

"I'll be there in a sec," she called back, then turned to Rufus. "Listen, I consider killing your father the only good thing Sephiroth ever did. Don't make the same…_mistakes_ that your father did, because that was the whole reason he was killed. That's all I'm suggesting."

Thus finished, she politely nodded to Rude, turned on her heel, and walked out after Cloud.

"What took you?" he asked her curiously as she got on her bike, as he was already on his, waiting.

"I gave him some advice that he likely won't ever forget," she replied as she started up her bike and revved the engine, then grinned.

"Catch me if you can!" she yelled before taking off towards Midgar, leaving him coughing in her dust.

Cloud grinned as well, then gunned the motor and took off after her. "Oh, I'll catch you, all right!"

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They got to the church and parked their bikes out front, and as they got off of them the two warriors noticed another bike parked out in front as well, one Christina vaguely recognized as they stopped to stare at it.

She poked Cloud. "Hey Cloud, does that bike look at all familiar to you?"

Cloud looked at it, then back at her. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, it does."

"Whose bike does it look like?"

"It looks like…" His eyes widened. "No way! That can't be! What're one of _those_ guys doing here?"

She smirked. "Exactly my point."

Neither of them had a chance to say anything further, for at that point out walked the short silver-haired guy that had chased them not too long ago, whom Rufus had told them was Loz.

A wary Christina pulled out her sword from the harness on her back. "Go check inside," she told Cloud. "I'll deal with him."

Cloud nodded and went inside while she turned back to Loz, twirling her sword.

"So," she said to him arrogantly, "you came back for a second helping of ass-thrashing, eh?"

Loz rolled his eyes at her. "Sorry, sister, but I can't play right now," he said before getting on his bike, starting it up, and zooming off, leaving her standing there staring after his retreating figure.

"Why does he keep calling me his sister?" she asked no one in particular. "I'm not related to him."

She pondered the question until she heard Cloud's yell from inside.

"Shit," she blurted before running inside, then stopped at the door, looking around. "Cloud?"

She spotted a bit of black in the flower garden and ran over to it, stopping at the edge of the wooden floor and discovering Cloud and Tifa both passed out in the middle of the garden.

"Oh damn! Cloud! Tifa!" she yelled before running over and kneeling down next to them, then noticed the bluish liquid on Cloud's glove.

She gasped. "Oh shit, it's worse than he said!"

She straightened up and was about to go get help when her leg seized up again, more painfully than it had any other time and she winced violently, managing to restrain herself from yelling like Cloud had but ending up passing out from the pain.

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She later came to on a bed with Cloud, still passed out, lying next to her on the bed, both of them laying on their backs and their swords propped against the wall.

She sat up and spotted Tifa on another bed nearby, also still passed out, then rested her elbows on her knees after crossing her legs Indian style and massaged her temples. "Man, do I have a headache…"

She heard a low moan next to her and looked over to find Cloud coming to, then grinned at him. "Look at who's up from his nap."

Cloud sat up and rubbed his head. "Where are we?"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say we were back at Shinra Headquarters." She shuddered. "Ugh, I hate this place…"

"Well, I wasn't expecting to end up back here, that's for sure," Cloud half-agreed.

She looked at him. "Damn it, Cloud, why didn't you tell me how bad you were affected? You know that I could have tried to help you as best I could."

Cloud stared down at the bedcovers. "I didn't want to burden you."

Christina tilted her head at him. "Did you ever call me a burden when I told you everything that happened with Shinra that I wouldn't even tell Zack?"

His ocean blue eyes met her forest green ones. "No, because you weren't."

"Then why would I ever consider _you_ one?"

He nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. "Okay, I think I see what you mean."

She smiled before leaning over and kissing him, which lasted three minutes or so before the both of them heard a moan from where Tifa lay and quickly separated, Cloud getting up and going over to stare out of the window and his fiancée lying back on the bed with her hands piled behind her head, her eyes closed as if she were trying to fall asleep and her leg giving a twinge of pain as she did.

_Good thing Tifa's so hard to knock out,_ she thought to herself. _It keeps her knocked out longer because of it._

She smiled as she remembered the promise that Cloud had made to Tifa and their other friends that the two of them wouldn't make out in front of any of them.

She noticed Tifa had slipped back into unconsciousness, and at almost the same moment she heard Reno's voice say, "You know, you guys are rather heavy to lug around."

She turned to the door and sure enough, there stood Reno, with Rude standing next to him as always.

"It's not exactly our fault," she retorted, turning to look back at the ceiling.

She glanced at Reno and saw him raise an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

She shrugged and glanced over at Cloud, whom she saw was glaring at her, and couldn't restrain a grin. "Oh, nothing," she said evasively as Cloud came over and sat down next to her on the bed, since she knew he'd end up smacking her on the back of the head if she continued. "By the way, you still owe me a rematch, Cloud."

Cloud gave her a strange look. "And _how_, exactly, do I owe you that rematch?"

"When the practice fight we were having before you got called on a delivery got postponed because of said delivery and you promised me a rematch," she replied smoothly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," he said teasingly, evading her playful swipe at his head.

She scowled teasingly, restraining herself from breaking out into a grin. "Oi! Stay still so I can get you!"

"Never!" he retorted, laughing, as he evaded more of her playful swipes at his head.

Reno rolled his eyes. "Enough flirting, you two."

Christina scowled at him. "Who said we were flirting?"

Cloud, however, took the opportunity to tickle her.

"GAH!" she squealed. "No! Hahahahaha—stop—hahahahahahahaha—Cloud—hahahahahahahahahaha!" She squirmed and couldn't stop laughing until Cloud at last relinquished his tickling.

"I'd definitely consider that flirting," Reno put in as Christina gasped for breath.

"That just shows how little you know about us," Cloud retorted.

"You and Rufie both," Christina muttered so that only Cloud could hear her, then added in her normal tone, "Cloud, let me up."

"If you say so," he said teasingly, but let her up anyway.

"So what's the news?" she asked the Turks as she got up off of the bed and stood next to it, Cloud taking her old spot.

"We're looking for the hideout right now," Rude informed them. "We have a pretty good idea where it is but we're not sure."

Christina nodded and she heard Cloud grunt in response, apparently thinking.

"We'll check it out and tell you if it is their hideout or not," Rude finished before they walked out the door.

Christina looked at Cloud, who was staring at the ceiling. From the look on his face, her assumption had been right—his head was buzzing with thoughts, and she guessed there were a few memories thrown in as well.

She was about to walk over and snap him out of his thoughts with a kiss when Tifa sat up and looked around, rubbing her head.

"They've gone looking," Cloud said suddenly, startling both women and making Tifa stare at him. "They won't be back for a while."

"How long have you two been up?" Tifa asked them.

"Long enough," Christina replied smoothly, going over and sitting where Cloud had been sitting when she was the one lying down.

"You didn't do anything _rash_, did you?" Tifa asked them suspiciously, one eyebrow raised.

Christina fought to keep her face straight. "Nope."

She could tell Cloud was also trying to keep his face straight as well, and when their eyes met, the both of them burst out laughing, unable to stop themselves.

"Aha! So you _have_ been kissing!" Tifa exclaimed triumphantly.

Still giggling, Christina managed to get out, "You said when we were around you we couldn't make out. You didn't say we couldn't if you weren't awake or conscious."

Tifa frowned. "That's true." She looked at Cloud, who had sat up in his fit of laughter and was now staring sullenly at the bedcovers.

"What say we go get Marlene?" Christina suggested in an effort to cheer him up.

Cloud, however, shook his head. "I'm a broken tool," he mumbled. "I'd just hold you guys down."

"Bullshit, you are!" his fiancée blurted. "Cloud, if I've told you a million times, I'll tell you again—you aren't a hinder to anyone! Why do you keep beating yourself up over that? Don't you remember_anything_ I told you while we were in SOLDIER?"

"Yeah, I remember, but—"

"No buts! You're not the only one who's had to deal with Zack and Aeris' deaths! They were as much my friends as yours, Cloud. And all this shit about being 'broken' is not true! Sure, we're afflicted with the damn stigma, but so are thousands of kids—most of them orphans—that have it too! And they had as much choice as we did with the cells—they were forced to get it just like we were when we joined SOLDIER! Plus, I had to deal with that jackass before and while I was in SOLDIER too! But do you see _me_ giving up? No, because I know that we can prevent assholes like that from affecting anyone else, and plus, there are much bigger fish to fry! Think of Marlene—and by the way, Barret is gonna be so pissed when he finds out that she's been kidnapped.

"Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is, all those orphans out there, Denzel included, look up to us—well, you mainly. And I wouldn't say that we're the ones that have started this mess, but we damn sure need to finish it before it ends up being another Meteor vs. Lifestream. Now what say we send Kedaj and the other two back to Hell where they belong?"

She lifted Cloud's chin so that his eyes looked straight into hers. "Now," she said softly, "are we gonna sit here twiddling our thumbs or are we gonna go kick some ass out there?"

Cloud grinned and kissed her briefly before standing up and going over to stand next to the door over where his sword rested. "I say we go kick some ass!"

Christina smiled and stood up as well before she went over and grabbed her sword and put it in its harness on her back, then turned to Cloud and gave him a mock salute. "Aye, aye, Captain!" she said teasingly, then turned to Tifa. "You coming?"

"Could I possibly ask a question before we go anywhere?" Tifa asked curiously. "And besides, we should wait until Reno and Rude get back."

"She does have a point," Cloud put in. "We should wait for them to tell us where the hideout is."

Christina scowled. "Oh, all right," she conceded finally, sitting back down where she had been before she had gotten up, Cloud going back to where he was before he had gotten up as well. "What's the question?"

Tifa hesitated slightly before asking her question. "You both have Geostigma, don't you?"

Cloud sighed and went back to staring at the ceiling just as Christina nodded, then she stood up again and went over to stand at the window to stare out of it.

"It's not like either of us _wanted_ it," she said after a few minutes, not looking at either of them. "Actually, I never even wanted to join SOLDIER in the first place, not even when _He_ forced me in it. If I hadn't have met Zack and Cloud, I would probably have bailed the first chance I got."

"Zack?" Tifa asked, sounding confused. "I thought Cloud said he didn't know any Zack."

"He didn't _at the time_," Christina corrected. "He remembered once he was out of the coma." She looked at Cloud. "Am I right?"

Cloud nodded, still staring at the ceiling. "Actually, I met Christina because of him."

"Ah, I see," Tifa noted, looking at Cloud. "Cloud, you care more about memories than us, don't you?"

Cloud sighed so forlornly that Christina went over and hugged him, which he sat up to greet. Hugs usually made her feel better whenever he hugged her so she figured it would work on him.

She straightened up then sat down next to him on the bed, letting him rest his head on her shoulder as she retied his boot laces.

"Dilly-dally, shilly-shally," she heard Tifa say suddenly and couldn't restrain a chuckle. "Dilly-dally, shilly-shally!"

"I think she means for you to move on," came a familiar voice from the door, which caused the three of them to look up, and Christina saw that it was Reno, of course.

"So where are they?" Tifa asked him.

"They're at the Forbidden Forest," Rude replied for him. "And they've got the works—even a box of Materia."

Cloud and Christina exchanged looks, then Christina cursed loudly.

"Damn! I should have figured that they were the ones that had taken both Marlene and the Materia!" she said, smacking her forehead. "Yuffie is gonna be really pissed when she finds out."

Cloud, however, looked at the Turks. "Go take care of them."

Christina smacked him on the back of the head. "You dumbass! They wouldn't stand a chance against those assholes! _We_ have to take care of them."

"She has a good point," Tifa put in. "I've fought the short-haired one and, man, was he tough! We're dealing with experienced fighters."

Cloud looked at Reno, who said, "It's all yours."

"Then let's go kick those guys' asses!" Cloud exclaimed and they ran outside the building (Cloud grabbing his sword on the way and putting it in his harness on his back), Tifa running on foot to Midgar and Cloud and Christina hopping on their bikes and heading over to the Forbidden Forest.

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They headed along a path with ghostly white trees, Cloud in the lead and Christina not quite behind him, since her front wheel lined up with his rear wheel.

Cloud and Christina sped up when they saw Kedaj and his two brothers, and both of them pulled out their swords.

Right then all the children with the stigma landed in front of the three silver-haired men, and the two warriors skidded to avoid hitting the kids.

Cloud ended up leaning too far and was thrown off of his bike, his sword landing amongst the kids but not harming any of them.

Christina had a bit more luck and managed to use a tree to stop her bike, but her sword was stuck in another tree nearby and she, too, was thrown off of her bike, landing next to Cloud.

She sat up and rubbed her head, and noted as she did so that Cloud had done the same when she felt cold steel at her throat and caught a glint of metal near Cloud's as well.

"These two are our big brother and big sister," a voice near her holding the swords said, apparently talking to the children. "But they're also what you would call black sheep!"

A vision of President Shinra before he had cut his hair flashed before Christina's eyes and a low growl issued from her throat once she realized how similar this guy looked to him.

After just a minute's pause, she tripped the guy—whom she saw to be Kedaj from what Rufus had told them—then got up and leapt on top of where her sword was stuck in the tree, noticing Cloud dove for his as well, then quickly unstuck her sword by jumping on the handle and caught it before slashing at Kedaj.

"You have officially asked for a can of whoopass," she said, smirking, then launched herself at him and out of the corner of her eye saw Cloud go for the other two, Yazoo and Loz.

A few minutes into the fight, she found that she still could fight like she could two years ago thanks to the practice fights she and Cloud often had to keep their skills sharp. She had even come up with new techniques once she had taught Cloud some of her moves and which worked well against him, but she quickly found that she needed an advantage if she was to win.

Seeing Cloud use one of Loz's arms to get into the branches of the trees above, Christina duplicated the move on Kedaj, using it to get to the higher branches of a tree above them and leapt over to help out Cloud some.

When Kedaj jumped in, she quickly found that she could fend them off thanks to the fact that she had Yuffie's old shuriken hidden away, using it to help not only fend off Kedaj and Loz but also to catch Yazoo off-guard several times as well, considering the shuriken boomeranged back to her every time she threw it.

They had been fighting for a while when she saw Yazoo catch Cloud off-guard, sending him to the ground.

"CLOUD!!" she yelled in horror, knocking the two guys away from her and leaping down to land next to him, then turned and was just about to attack the guys again when a bright red cloak appeared out of nowhere and snatched Cloud up, sword and all.

Christina watched as the cloak evaded the gunshots from Yazoo and Kedaj's guns and followed after it when it left although she could barely keep up with it, hiding away her shuriken and putting her sword back in its harness as she did.

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She arrived at a clearing with a lake a few minutes afterwards—nearly losing sight of the red cloak when she had been following it—and discovered a much stronger-looking Cloud sitting next to the lake.

"Cloud?" she asked him cautiously, crouching next to him. "Are you alright?"

"I could have been worse, I guess," he replied, which made her smile and hug him.

When she let go of him she spotted Vincent Valentine—whom she knew had been "the cloak"—and stood up to greet him. "Vincent, do you know anything about the stigma? Something that could help get rid of it?"

"Nothing that could cure it, I'm afraid, but I have found some interesting information," Vincent replied.

"Like what?" she asked him, sitting down next to Cloud on his "good" side—the side the stigma wasn't on—and rested her head on his shoulder, which made him smile and slip his arm around her waist.

"The Geostigma results when the body attempts to rid itself of an alien substance but the substance fights back."

"The injected Jenova cells," Christina pointed out, making Vincent nod.

"Yes, and the injected Jenova cells are stronger, which causes the area around the injection site to become bruised and painful."

As if to give an example, he grabbed Cloud's stigmatized arm—which made Cloud wince sharply—and held it for a minute before letting it go.

"See what I mean?" he said pointedly.

"Not really," Cloud retorted, taking his arm from around Christina's waist and using it to gently rub his afflicted arm.

Christina's head shot up in alarm just before the three of them heard rustling from a set of bushes nearby and stood up—Cloud holding his sword, Christina with her hand on the hilt of hers, and Vincent with his hand near his gun holster.

The rustling continued for a few more seconds before Marlene appeared, running over and hugging Cloud's legs.

"Marlene!" Christina exclaimed, relieved. "Thank God you're alright."

The girl turned to her and gave her a smile, then greeted Vincent with a nod as Cloud turned to him.

"Vincent, could you take Marlene to Tifa?" he asked the forbidding-looking man, though Christina knew he was really the exact opposite.

Vincent shook his head. "I'm not taking her."

Marlene let go of Cloud. "Cloud! You never pay attention to us anymore!" she half-scolded him before running over and hiding behind Christina.

Christina scowled at her fiancée. "Cloud! Tifa was right. You should try to live your own life rather than reliving SOLDIER every day." She crossed her arms. "I shouldn't be the only person you pay attention to all the time."

She saw Cloud's eyes get a glazed-over look to them and knew instantly that he was talking to Aeris, since she had done that several times herself, and when he snapped out of it he asked Vincent, "Do sins ever get forgiven?"

Both Vincent and Christina were startled at the question, but Christina noticed that Vincent hid his surprise rather well as he replied, "I don't know, I've never asked."

"You mean, never tried," Cloud muttered before looking at Marlene, who was still hiding behind Christina. "Well, there's no reason not to start now. C'mon, Marlene, I'll take you home."

Marlene nodded and ran over to Cloud.

"Hang on," Christina called after them, catching up to them after waving goodbye to Vincent. "I'm gonna go too, since my bike's where yours is anyways."

Cloud smiled and nodded, then yelled after them, "See you later, Vincent!" as the three of them walked over to where the bikes were.

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The three of them found the bikes and Marlene rode on Christina's bike sitting in front of her, then they took Marlene to Tifa's bar, _Tifa's Seventh Heaven_.

"Let's go try to find Tifa—maybe she's gotten Denzel by now," Christina suggested to Cloud once Marlene was safely inside the bar.

Cloud nodded and the two of them zoomed off towards Shinra Headquarters.

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When they got there, Christina found that Tifa had rescued Denzel and the boy looked eager to see the two warriors.

"Cloud! Christina!" Denzel yelled happily. "You made it!"

"'Course we'd make it," Christina retorted a little arrogantly. "You didn't think that we'd let a monster demolish Midgar more than it already is, did you?"

The remark made Tifa laugh and Cloud smile slightly, then Tifa asked, "Where's Marlene?"

"She's safe, back at your place," Cloud replied, now fiddling with his sword in piecing it back together.

"I think I'll go back to Tifa's with Marlene so that she's not lonely," Denzel put in suddenly, starting to go but turning to look back at Cloud. "Cloud, promise you'll come back?"

Cloud stopped piecing his sword together long enough to look at Denzel and nod, which made Denzel smile before running off to go join Marlene.

Christina moved up so that her bike was next to his and teased him, "Oh yeah, Cloud, promise me too while you're at it, will you?"

Cloud grinned and ruffled her bangs affectionately. "You already know the answer to that question, Christina."

Christina set to checking her weapons like she usually did before a fight, since she always liked to make sure her weapons were in working order so that she didn't have to worry about them malfunctioning in the middle of a battle.

"You know," she heard Cloud say after a few minutes as he put the last pieces of his sword together, "I feel lighter. Maybe I've lost a few pounds, with all that dilly-dally."

"Was that an attempt at a joke?" Tifa teased him.

Christina snorted. "Well, it's not like he didn't need to anyways, being lazy and all," she teased, ducking his playful swipe to her head as she checked her last gun.

Cloud, who had finished putting his sword together and now had it in the bike compartment, scowled at her playfully. "Stay still! I have yet to pay you back for earlier!"

"Actually, that was_me_ that needed to pay _you_ back," Christina retorted, grinning, as she replaced the gun and quickly checked that her shuriken was hidden away on her person. "Now, what say we join the fun, meh?"

Tifa grinned and hopped behind Cloud—making Christina glare at her for it—then the three sped off to park the bikes elsewhere and headed over to join the fight.

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Once Christina got to the battleground, she saw that everyone else had joined in, then leapt in and threw her shuriken at the monster, then slashed at the creature and smoothly caught her shuriken in her left hand while she twirled her sword in her right.

She evaded a blow from the beast's tail and landed a good distance away as she watched Cloud snatch Barret out of harm's way.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Barret demanded of the two warriors.

"Getting your daughter to safety," Christina retorted calmly. "Therefore, you should be thanking us rather than yelling at us."

"Well, you could have been quicker with it!" Barret snapped back.

She rolled her eyes just as Cloud leapt off to fight the monster, then she pulled out her shuriken and threw it after him to help him out, slashing at the monster while the shuriken was in the air and catching it mid-comeback, and upon catching it, landed nearby.

When the monster's tail came at her again, rather than dodging it a second time, she slashed it off with her shuriken and evaded the cut-off part of it while catching her shuriken at the same time. She then slashed at the monster again with her sword but missed as the creature flew upwards out of normal leaping range, then, upon noticing Cloud getting boosts upwards to slash the monster, hid her shuriken away and leapt over so that she, too, could help give him a boost up.

When she got her chance, she leapt over so that she was next to him and put her hand on the bottom of his right foot, whispering so that only he could hear, "Demolish that monster, Cloud," before throwing him as hard as she could upwards, then landed near the others but on a different tier that they had landed on, putting her sword back in the harness on her back.

She stood up and watched Vincent and Tifa help him out as well, then the monster attacked, but Cloud went straight through the attack and, when Christina saw that he was going faster than he had been when he went into the attack, she knew that Aeris had helped out as well.

He slashed the monster across the back and kept going up while the monster, defeated, fell down and disintegrated, as did its attack, then he landed next to Christina a minute later and his fiancée hugged him, relieved.

Once they broke apart, Christina noticed a strange blue light behind them and nudged Cloud, who looked just in time to see Rufus fall and Kedaj already after the box that Rufus had dropped.

"Peculiar," she noted, half to herself. "Kedaj wouldn't be after the box, unless…no, it can't be! Is it…?"

"Is it what?" Cloud asked her curiously.

"I think that's what's left of Jenova," she whispered in his ear.

"We can't let him get it then," Cloud exclaimed before leaping off towards where the bikes were hidden.

"Cloud!" Christina yelled after him exasperatedly. "You jackass! Get back here!"

He apparently ignored her for he didn't stop at all and, once he was out of sight, she sighed. "Damn it…Sometimes I wish I could have some sort of leash on that asshole…"

"You're not the only one," she heard Tifa say behind her. "Besides, Cloud is Cloud."

Christina smiled and nodded. "That's true," she replied before she leapt off to the bikes, then got on hers and took off after Cloud, twirling her sword.

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"You take Loz, I'll take Yazoo," she told Cloud once she caught up with him. "Or, I can take Kedaj and you take both Yazoo and Loz."

"Do you _always_ have to follow me?" Cloud said mock-exasperatedly.

She grinned. "Hey, I'm not gonna let _you_ have all the fun. Besides, it's not like there isn't enough to go around, right?"

Cloud smiled and shook his head. "No, I suppose not."

Christina smirked and sped up so that she caught up with Kedaj, who was holding the box, and slashed at him, which he evaded and counter-slashed and which she evaded by doing a wheelie. She then landed her front wheel so that she was ahead of Kedaj and slashed at him a second time, evading an attack from Loz soon after.

The battle continued in this manner until they went into a tunnel, which at that point Yazoo and Loz started launching surprise attacks on the two ex-SOLDIERs following Kedaj.

Eventually, Loz threw his bike into the air while Christina had her turn fighting Kedaj, since she and Cloud were swapping frequently, and Kedaj ducked under it while Christina cleverly sliced it in half so that Loz could not ride it and Cloud sliced open both Loz's and Yazoo's weapons so that they couldn't use them. The two warriors then landed on their bikes again and raced through the end of the tunnel, where Reno and Rude were waiting with a pair of bombs to knock the two younger brothers out of the rankings.

Once they were out of the tunnel, Christina turned to Cloud. "From here on out it's all yours." She smiled. "Cloud, show that asshole who's boss and don't let him forget for a minute who he's dealing with, okay?"

Cloud smiled and nodded. "You've got it, Christina," he said before moving his bike over to hers, leaning over, and kissing her deeply but briefly, adding in a whisper afterwards, "I love you."

Christina smiled. "I love you, too, Cloud," she whispered back before they had to separate once the two of them caught up to Kedaj. (AN: Everybody say "Awwwwww…")

Up ahead was a leap, and Christina sped up so that she could make it to the _Highwind_'s ramp, then landed on it just as Cloud and Kedaj went off of it and slid down the steep cliff leading into the dilapidated church that Christina and Cloud had first been introduced to Aeris.

Christina, once her bike was parked and safely secured in the cargo area, went up to what she called the "lookout point" on the airship, where she saw everyone else was.

"Hey guys," she greeted them meekly before staring out at the church where she knew Cloud was, her arms crossed.

"What'd you tell him?" she heard Cait Sith ask her curiously.

"Basically, to kick that bitch's ass to the moon and back," she replied, still staring out at the church. "Kedaj needs it anyway."

The whole group watched Cloud fight Kedaj, and eventually saw Kedaj toss the box into the air and dump the contents out onto himself, then landed, and Cloud attacked him a second later and Kedaj turned into Sephiroth.

Christina's eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. "I should have known…I _knew_ he looked familiar!"

"He did look considerably like Sephiroth in the first place, didn't he?" Tifa commented, scratching her chin.

"Kick his ass, Cloud!" Christina yelled, even though she knew Cloud couldn't hear her. "Make that bastard pay for what he did to Aeris!"

She could have sworn she saw Cloud smirk before he proceeded to fight Sephiroth, and, getting an idea, she ran out of the Lookout Area and climbed up on a ladder to stand out on the deck where she could hear what the two warriors said, the wind making her hair flap out behind her.

She saw Cloud get knocked over and Sephiroth stab him in the shoulder with his sword, which in turn made Cloud yell in pain.

"Tell me what you cherish most, so I can have the pleasure of taking it away," she heard Sephiroth say to Cloud.

Cloud, without answering, took the sword out of his shoulder and leapt at Sephiroth, forcing the other to retreat, then said, "You don't get it, do you? There isn't anything I _don't_ cherish."

"Nice comeback," she commented to herself, a bit impressed.

She watched as Cloud then proceeded to fight Sephiroth again, and, after a long battle, he finally got the upper hand and used his Omnislash technique to defeat the much more experienced silver-haired warrior, who wrapped his black angel wing around himself and dissolved into Kedaj.

"All right Cloud!" she yelled happily. "Way to kick his ass!"

She then watched as Kedaj attempted to attack Cloud but collapsed before he could and eventually dissolved into the Lifestream thanks to Aeris.

"Let's see…so that's twice now that Cloud has whooped Sephiroth's sorry ass. I bet Cloud's gonna get arrogant now," she noted to herself as Cloud stood up, still staring at where Kedaj had vanished. "Mental note to self: Don't let him stay arrogant for too long."

She heard a sudden shot ring out and saw Cloud wince and clutch his chest, then a second later saw him turn and attempt to attack Loz and Yazoo, who were standing nearby.

"What?!" she yelled in astonishment. "No way! Those jackasses were dead! I saw them get blown up in the tunnel! How dare they shoot Cloud like that?"

Once Cloud got to the two brothers, there was a huge explosion and Christina saw Cloud get thrown back from the force of it and couldn't restrain a gasp of shock.

"CLOUD!!" she yelled in panic before she was thrown back from the force of the explosion and hit the wall.

She stood back up and a second later found herself in a white room with Cloud floating in the middle of it, unconscious, and ran over to him, noticing as she did so that he was at the perfect height for her to take him.

"Oh, God, Cloud!" she moaned when she saw the bullet wound in his chest, but noticed it disappear a second later, as well as the wound in his shoulder where Sephiroth had stabbed him. "Huh?"

Christina frowned but slipped her arms underneath him and his body rested on them, then she spotted Zack and Aeris standing across from where she stood and saw they were watching her.

"Cloud," she said softly, gently shaking him. "Cloud, come on, joke's over. Wake up."

"He won't wake," Aeris told her, stopping her attempts. "The only way that he'll come back is if you put him in the lake in the church where I met you both after the Mako Reactor exploded."

"There's a lake there now?" Christina asked curiously.

Zack nodded. "That's why Cloud doesn't have the stigma anymore."

She looked down at Cloud again and noticed two things: one, that the sleeve that she had seen Cloud wearing ever since his stigma started acting up was gone and two, that the Geostigma that had been there was indeed gone.

She looked back at her two old friends. "Do you think it could heal mine?"

Aeris laughed. "Let's get Cloud back where he belongs first, then we'll see about your stigma."

"Now go," Zack added in a mock-commander's voice. "The children that had the stigma are already waiting, and the others will know where you're talking about—or at least Tifa will."

Christina nodded. "All right." She gave the two of them a sad look. "Thank you—for everything."

She simply blinked and she found that she was back in the _Highwind_ in the lookout room with all the others, though she had no memory of walking there.

"We've got to get back to the church ASAP," she told Tifa, who nodded and ran up to tell Cid while the others stared at Christina in shock.

"Why do we need to get back to the church?" Yuffie asked curiously.

"Because the only way to get Cloud back is to put him in the lake that's in the church now," she replied.

"You can put him down in the bedroom, you know," Barret told her.

She shook her head. "No, I refuse. I'm not letting him out of my sight until I see him back moving around again." She looked down at Cloud again and smiled. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he was sleeping."

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They got to the church and everyone got out of the _Highwind_ and walked inside, then Christina walked over to where several children stood in the water waiting, and handed Cloud to them, then stood back up to watch as they took him to the middle of the lake and dropped him into the water, and she bit her lip to keep herself from crying out.

A minute later, she saw Cloud stand up in the water, which came up to his waist, and the funny thing was, his top half wasn't even wet, and his eyes went to where his friends stood, finally meeting hers and keeping them locked in a sort of trance.

"There are still children with the stigma," Red XIII said a minute later, breaking their trance and making Cloud walk over to Denzel, holding out his arms.

"C'mon, Denzel, I'm right here," he told the orphan soothingly.

Denzel nodded nervously and walked over to where Cloud stood and let Cloud pick him up and set him into the water, then the warrior cupped some of the lake water in his hands and drizzled it over Denzel's head, and Christina saw the stigma vanish from the boy's head. At that, the other children that had been standing nearby jumped into the lake and started playing in it.

Christina, using the playing as a kind of a cover, went into the water as well and ran over to where Cloud stood, then threw herself into his arms while at the same time feeling the tension in her leg from the Geostigma go away.

She placed her hands on his chest and rested her head between them, and felt his arms encircle her waist but noted he seemed a little distracted, and snuck a glance at him to see that he was staring at the door, then followed his gaze to see Aeris standing up from talking with some kids and Zack leaning against the doorframe.

Christina, not caring who was watching, smiled and waved at them as her two old friends turned and walked out the door, then looked up at Cloud, whom she noticed was looking at her.

Cloud, completely forgetting the promise he had made about not making out in front of the others, leaned down and his lips met hers in a tender kiss.

Around ten minutes later, the two of them heard a loud "AHEM!" and separated to find the others looking at them, then the two of them ran over to where they were on the dry wooden floor.

Once on the wooden floor, Cloud pulled Christina over to him possessively and she allowed him to, resting her head on his chest.

"Boy," Yuffie teased, "the way you act, it's like you two were engaged!"

Christina muffled her giggles in Cloud's shoulder.

Vincent stared at them. "Don't tell me you two really _are_ engaged."

Christina's giggling intensified and Cloud smiled slightly. "You have no idea," he muttered.

"You mean you were engaged this whole time _and you didn't say a damn word_?" Tifa asked incredulously.

Cloud shrugged. "You didn't ask, and besides, I didn't exactly want everyone fretting over us when we were trying to get rid of Kedaj and his brothers."

"How long have you been engaged?" Cait Sith asked them.

"A little over a year now," Cloud replied simply.

"When's the wedding?" Cid asked.

Cloud shrugged. "We don't know yet, but it'll be soon."

"You could have said something, you know."

"It's not his fault!" Christina put in once she had stopped giggling. "He kept forgetting."

"Where is the ring? I never saw Christina wearing a ring," Vincent pointed out.

"I keep it around my neck so I don't lose it," she said, pulling out the ring on the necklace around her neck from underneath her shirt.

"And when did you get around to asking her?" Cait Sith asked them.

Cloud shrugged again. "I asked her when I thought it was a good time."

"Yeah," Christina heard Cid mutter, "over a candlelit dinner."

Tifa smacked him on the back of the head, making the pilot yell "OW!" and glare at her.

Christina grinned then slipped out of Cloud's possessive hug, yelling, "Last one back to the _Highwind_ is a rotten egg!" and ran off towards the ship, everyone but Cloud and Vincent following.

Cloud smiled and shook his head. "It's a wonder she hasn't changed any through all of this."

"Hey," Vincent pointed out, "what'd you expect from her? Of course she hasn't changed any. Now what say we catch up to them?"

Cloud nodded and the two of them ran off to catch up with the others.

**THE END **

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** Ninjagirl: Review and tell me if it is good!  
**


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